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Public Broadcasting Service: Difference between revisions
From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
→The general shape of PBS stations' buying patterns: - WTTW aired eps in '75
(→How Doctor Who came and left PBS: - Some PBS stations still air the show.) |
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The practical result of PBS affiliates being wed to universities is that the audience for ''Doctor Who'' in its American heyday was significantly student-based. PBS stations usually offered the strongest signals to campus televisions when most people still received television signals aerially. The effect of ''Doctor Who'' upon student populations in America was thus pronounced just because of the particular channel that carried the programme. | The practical result of PBS affiliates being wed to universities is that the audience for ''Doctor Who'' in its American heyday was significantly student-based. PBS stations usually offered the strongest signals to campus televisions when most people still received television signals aerially. The effect of ''Doctor Who'' upon student populations in America was thus pronounced just because of the particular channel that carried the programme. | ||
== The general shape of PBS stations' buying patterns == | == The general shape of PBS stations' buying patterns == | ||
Although a handful of pioneering PBS stations may have begun broadcasting ''Doctor Who'' with a few [[Jon Pertwee]] stories (Chicago's WTTW showed some episodes in 1975, sometimes without a discernible order), <ref>http://chicago.epguides.com/doctorwho/WTTW.asp</ref> ''Doctor Who'' broadcasting on PBS stations largely began with the Time + Life distribution of [[season 12|seasons 12]] to [[season 15|15]]. These initially appeared as individual episodes, with [[Howard Da Silva]] linking narration at the top of episodes to explain things for viewers who may have forgotten where the narrative had left off. These three seasons were put onto a loop my most of the stations that carried them, because the stations had bought the right to show the episodes a certain number of times. The fact that this initial package ended with ''[[The Invasion of Time]]'' allows us to date general American involvement with ''Doctor Who'' to no earlier than about [[1978]]. | |||
PBS would then obtain rights to subsequent seasons. Usually, the prospect of getting the new season was used as an incentive during PBS donation requests, or "pledge drives". As each new season was added to the library of the particular station, the "Tom Baker loop" would grow ever longer. Each station would go as far as they could with their Baker episodes, then snap back to ''[[Robot (TV story)|Robot]]'', and do it all again. Thus, Tom Baker is particularly vivid in the minds of many American fans because his adventures were played so often. Eventually, the [[Peter Davison]] and [[Colin Baker]] seasons were added to many PBS station libraries. | PBS would then obtain rights to subsequent seasons. Usually, the prospect of getting the new season was used as an incentive during PBS donation requests, or "pledge drives". As each new season was added to the library of the particular station, the "Tom Baker loop" would grow ever longer. Each station would go as far as they could with their Baker episodes, then snap back to ''[[Robot (TV story)|Robot]]'', and do it all again. Thus, Tom Baker is particularly vivid in the minds of many American fans because his adventures were played so often. Eventually, the [[Peter Davison]] and [[Colin Baker]] seasons were added to many PBS station libraries. | ||
